Political India: Engaging America

It reads like a list of all the companies that the Occupy Wall Street Movement would target. Over the Christmas weekend a self-fashioned Robin-Hood-style group of internet activists called Anonymous hacked into the databases of a Texas-based security firm and posted a list of over 4,000 customers of the firm along with their private information on the Internet.

Assuming the list is genuine it would appear that the firm, called Stratfor, provided global intelligence reports to major banks and consulting firms, airlines, mining companies, communications giants, software majors and weapons manufacturers among others. Stratfor, which operates out of Austin, Texas, only noted that its website was, “currently undergoing maintenance.”

In response to a query from The Hindu a Stratfor representative said, “Unfortunately, we can't give any more info beyond what we've sent out to our members. We're dealing with an ongoing law enforcement investigation and figuring out who, what, how, etc. I'm really sorry I can't do more - my hands are tied.”

However Stratfor did supply the statement that its management issued to its members, including a comment from Stratfor official George Friedman, who apologised for the “unfortunate incident, saying, “On December 24th an unauthorized party disclosed personally identifiable information and related credit card data of some of our members. We have reason to believe that your personal and credit card data could have been included in the information that was illegally obtained and disclosed.”

Mr. Friedman confirmed that as part of the publicly released data was “a list of our members;” however he disputed the claim of the “unauthorised party” that that list included Stratfor's private clients. “Contrary to this assertion the disclosure was merely a list of some of the members that have purchased our publications and does not comprise a list of individuals or entities that have a relationship with Stratfor beyond their purchase of our subscription-based publications,” Mr. Friedman said.

Following the posting, which included credit card numbers and passwords, hackers were quoted as saying that “The goal was to pilfer funds from individuals' accounts to give away as Christmas donations,” and some purported victims had confirmed that unauthorised transactions linked to their credit cards had taken place.

On its Twitter account, where Anonymous posted the full Stratfor list, the “hacktivist” group said, “Not so private and secret anymore?” Anonymous further hinted that it had been able to break into the Stratfor system because Stratfor had failed to encrypt private data.

Suggesting that only a “small slice of the 200 gigabytes worth” of data it obtained from Stratforwas online, it promised further leaks.

In what will no doubt be a closely-watched development Anonymous said in a statement to media via its Twitter account that it would “pick up the pace of releasing peoples' credit card information.”

The group asked, “How does a drop of 30,000 additional names, credit cards, addresses, phone numbers... hashed passwords sound? Sounds like a financial calamity to us. And just as the markets in the U.S. are opening after the holiday weekend? Might be trouble.” It added that on Tuesday it would reveal the entire customer database from an online military and law enforcement supply store.

Both offering a way out and indicating where its sympathies lay, the group however said, “This could all be averted. Have you given our comrade Bradley Manning his holiday feast yet, at a fancy restaurant of his choosing? Better make it happen, captain.”

Anonymous' Twitter account is @AnonymousIRC and it has posted data at http://pastebin.com/8MtFze0s